Harry Parker’s Legacy Lives on With Harvard Rowing

Jun 06, 2014

Saturday will mark the first Harvard-Yale Regatta without Parker's presence since 1962.

BOSTON, Mass. - Legendary Harvard heavyweight crew coach Harry Parker was featured in The Boston Globe today ahead of tomorrow's Harvard-Yale Regatta. In the piece, John Powers '70 sheds light on Parker's 51-year career at Harvard and points to the indelible impact he has had on both programs, as well as the sport of rowing.

"Harry Parker has been gone since last summer yet it seems that he never has left. "For the entire year any time a door swings open and I'm not looking, I expect him to walk in," said Charley Butt, his colleague and successor.

Parker, who died of cancer at 77, was the dean of American rowing coaches and an inimitable institution at Harvard, where he directed the heavyweight crew program for 51 years and created a dynasty that endured across generations.

His absence will be most keenly felt here on Saturday afternoon when Harvard and Yale will have at each other for the 149th time in their 4-mile classic on the Thames River and Parker and his lantern jaw and seafarer's beard will be missing from the Crimson launch for the first time since 1962."